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Some Beasts’ natures go one step beyond the classifications of predator or prey, or of whether they were runners,
swimmers or fliers. Their nature is simple: they’re venomous. Faerie is full of poisons and venoms of all sorts, and
the Venombites are those changelings who were changed by
such noxious substances to become lethal themselves. While
not necessarily any more malicious than their fellow Lost,
the Venombites know that there is always one more option
when dealing with a bad problem. Whether or not they let
this option poison their very hearts is up to the individual
changeling.
Similar to other Beasts, Venombites have a wide variety
of ways in which their natures may have manifested in their fae
miens. Reptilian Venombites show notable scales, and the long
folding fangs of a viper or the short envenomed teeth of a coral
snake or Gila monster. A spider-kin might have cobwebby hair
and a tendency to attract her smaller cousins, and a scorpionman might have fingertips ending in short stingers like the
tails of his cousins. Their coloration is often quite vivid, and
markings common to their associated animals typically show
themselves on a Venombite’s flesh. A cobra-woman wears on
her brow the spectacled marks on the back of a cobra’s hood.
A small South American Venombite has the bright coloration
of a poison-arrow tree frog. One spider-Beast has the fiddleback
mark of a brown recluse; another displays a red hourglass just
above her navel. Most Venombites show off these marks openly when dealing with other Lost. It’s something of a gesture of
trust — a commodity all too dear to changelings.

Venombites are largely the creations of True
Fae who had a particular need or affinity for Venombites’ poison. Many were enslaved by ogres, hags or other twisted and
poisonous Gentry. Made into venomous animals to match
their Keepers’ bitterness, Venombites shared their durance
with Darklings, Ogres and other unfortunates. Venombites
may have served as familiars, or been used as “pest control.”
Some were even used in the fashion of the legendary poison maiden: groomed to produce a particularly toxic venom,
dressed up in the fashion of a concubine or decorative servant, then given to a neighboring True Fae as a present with
instructions to bite when the time was right. Owing to the
level of mistrust between Gentry, this ruse worked best when the recipient wasn’t a rival, but just an unwitting neighbor
whose surprised agonies would amuse the sender.

As noted above, spiders are often trickster figures in folklore. They can also be creators, fashioning the
entire world in some Native American traditions. When spiders’ venom is a particular point of the myth, though, they are
predictably malicious. The reputation of the black widow and
similar spiders is well-known, and many cultures tell stories of
spiders that take human form to attract a mate, and then a
meal. Scorpions also have a generally poor reputation, from
the common fable of the scorpion that kills another animal
helping it because “it’s my nature” to the Sumerian stories of
demonic scorpion-men spawned by Tiamat.